It’s not us, it’s them.

Back in Burning Crusade I didn’t have any problems finding a tank or a healer for a heroic run. I had a long list of them. They were found in my friends list in-game, and to the extent that a person can have friends online, they were indeed just that. I was not friends with them merely because they were a tank; the tank part was an added bonus. But I enjoyed their company, their gameplay, their personalities, and their selflessness above all other aspects. Some of those other aspects were indeed the ability to tank and heal. I myself brought the ability to play a rogue. Notice that I did not say, DPS. I was known on my realm as a most passable rogue. I could be counted on to kick, sap, kidney shot, pick locks, remove traps, stealth and scout and all other matter of abilities, including the good old fashioned one of doing some damage and not dying regularly in the attempt. I also didn’t ninja drops.

The vast majority of these friends were not in my guild. I did not meet them by raiding. I met them as I levelled up. The first of these friends I remember well. We met in Westfall, when I spied him being jumped upon and beat up by some nasty, nefarious gnolls. I rescued him from his predicament. I then helped him to complete his quest, and then he helped me to complete a few of mine. He was a priest. He went on my friends list and we ended up raiding karazhan together many months later. Another wonderful friend I met when I was asked to help in a Blackfathom Deeps run. He was a hunter, and he had the strange habit of being very effective, as well as a boon companion and ninja-free. He too was added to my friends list, as I was to his own. And he also made many an appearance in Karazhan as well as other raids later on.

There were many other friends that I found in this manner. They were found due to the necessity of seeking help, and the quick realisation on all of our parts that good players should be valued and friendships nurtured. The act of logging-on at that time was cause for a series of whispered hello’s, and a general ask-around of what everyone was doing. Perhaps a 5 man would be formed, perhaps not. But the opportunity was always there. Occasionally a bad apple would come sneaking in to our group of friends. But once this bad apple had been identified, they would have no other choice but to transfer realms. Bad behaviour was not tolerated, and there were consequences for being anti-social.

Because of the unique skills that I as a rogue brought to the table, there was never any talk of me not pulling my weight by playing a DPS class, purely because of the uniqueness of my skills. And because we were all friends and we had found each other on our own realm, (even using the realm unique dungeon/raid/quest/group search finder at the time), we were not only always available but our behaviour shaped the realm where we were. Actions had consequences, both good and bad.

Over the course of the last two expansions there have been two major changes that have broken this system of MMO gameplay. The first was the introduction of the cross-realm LFG system, and the dramatic effect that had on realm communities. The second has been the recent and ongoing homogenisation of the DPS classes in particular, to the extent that one is as good as another in any situation. Both of these changes have been made by Blizzard, not the players. The effects of these is the situation that we now find ourselves in:

1. The antisocial behaviour due to there being no reason to make friends and no consequences for actions.
2. The only two ways to find players to run something with is by the LFG tool or by joining a guild.
3. DPS find themselves in the situation where not only are their skills found in any other class, but with the introduction of dual specs many former tanks and healers are willing to jump in the queue as DPS when it suits them.

As a consequence of antisocial behaviour, many players who play tanks in particular are now unwilling to tank a run for anyone but those already known to them or in their guild. As tanks in particular are easy to run through the LFG system, tanks can gear up quickly in comparison to other roles, thus giving them the quick option of opting out of the entire LFG system.

The call by Tobold and other commentators for DPS players to shoulder the burden of playing a tank is a bandaid solution attempting to cover a gaping wound. Not only does it place the blame for the current situation on the wrong people, it does nothing to address the real and deep-rooted problems that plague the game. In the space of two expansions we have moved from a healthy and vibrant MMO community to a selfish and antisocial collection of unhappy and dissatisfied players. The rot is setting in, and the delusion that is felt is widespread. Turning on each other at this time is counter-productive. We need to understand if the current state of the game was in fact Blizzard’s intention. If it is, then it is better to walk away. If it is not then we would do well to try and understand how it can be resolved.

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32 Responses to “It’s not us, it’s them.”

Thanks to both of you. I think that this is an important post, possibly the most important one that I have written. For anyone reading this, if you agree or disagree, please say so. And if you have any ideas on how we could make our game better, don’t hesitate to add those as well.

This should be posted on EU and US WOW forums and add a poll with it in which should be voted about removal of dual spec and LFD system. Although allmighty Blizzard hardly remove mistakes that were already made but they should know opinion of their subscribers. Large number of players that I know changed from raiders to end game casuals, ignoring everything that game gives as end game content (raids,bg’s, rated bg’s)simply existing in game, doing few dailies needed for their professions and current factions. Generally Cataclysm was profitable for Blizzard but in a few months I believe that a lot of subscriptions will be canceled. Ninjas and loot whores are in their golden age and no decent player that sees this game as a way to relax and sanctuary from real life will tolerate this

I completely agree. Back in BC I had a protection paladin, and I did heroics nearly every day with a static group of people, none of which were in my guild. We met and formed a group just as you have described, and it was wonderful.
Now I tank on a DK, and there are only three flavors of heroic – pug, guild-healer plus pugs, or guild group. I enjoy the last of these, but miss the “group of other friends” flavor from previous incarnations of this game.

Well the only solution i see for this would be to roll back the changes to LFG and the “class standardization” as i call it. For the LFG i think it should only be used inside your own realm thus forcing people to use the Trade channels as we did back in the TBC, as for the class standardization, they should just give back each class their old flavor.
Because Lets face it, when everyone does exactly the same things the game gets boring

It is really strange how people seem to purposefully misinterprete statements. Nowhere did Tobold attack DPS Players. His
inital post was a reponse to someone else’s post about waiting times and replaceability of DPS in DF Groups. Tobold provided an appropriate response.

I think Epiny explained the situation extremely well:

I am however saying that if you choose to play an archetype that is over saturated then you need to accept the consequences of that. As soon as you, or anyone, choose to enter a dungeon you are now bound to a social contract with the rest of your group. You NEED one another to complete the dungeon. It is no longer “your $15” but it is “our $60”. ($75 if we count you too) As it stands people are already forced to play certain specs for the benefit of others. People HAVE to play as tanks in order for a group to happen. Yes 60% of the players choosing to do dungeons still need to be DPS, more so in raids.

However MORE than 60% are trying to DPS then they are complaining about it.

If PLAYING the game is so important to you I recommend trying to find a role that allows you to do that while still enjoying it. Do not force the game to change to fit your play style. That is what I have an issue with.

I agree we are looking at this from two different perspectives. However it’s not that I’m looking at it as though the game can’t be changed. I’m looking at it as though the game SHOULDN’T be changed. To me it falls in the same area as people complaining about Heroics, the game shouldn’t be changed because people are unable to adapt. If we look at the history of MMOs WoW has had harder dungeons and longer wait times for groups. Those occurred after WoW spiked to the famous 10 million mark, at around the time of The Burning Crusade.

I don’t want anyone to quit and I don’t want to FORCE people to reroll. What I want is for people to stop trying to alter the game to fit their specific needs and schedule. I want people to accept that at some point they are going to have to work with the gaming community and stop demanding Blizzard to fix their problems. Simply accept that the wait sucks and it will eventually get better. That’s all I really want.

I am perfectly fine with people WANTING to play as DPS. I keep saying this though, don’t try and change the entire game because you are unhappy with the wait time because of what you’ve chosen. You are being selfish as soon as you try to alter the game in a way that makes YOUR line shorter because you refuse to reroll. If you really don’t like the wait in LFD that much run guild groups or trade groups, odds are they will be more successful anyways.

I really hope these comprised quotes can clarify once and for all that NOBODY IS ATTACKING DPS! DPS are lamenting about waiting times and other in-game issues and demand a fix without working on it themselves. That is not acceptable!

Robert has some interesting thoughts on “social responsibility”:

I think you can take “social responsibility” (if you want to use that phrase) with every class in the game.

By the way, people who only want to play for the fun of the game and do not see any fun in socializing should not complain about explicit multiplayer content of games. They should do the solo quests and if they get along with it the normal dungeons but these guys should not be able to win heroic dungeons nor to conquer raid bosses.

The Epicness of an MMO comes out of the social power and enjoyment of conversations and teamwork it is not derived from big monsters or great weapons…because those things you can also find in dragon age or mass effect…whatever…

I have nothing more to add, really. Whenever one interacts with other people one automatically has a “social responsibility” regardless of the circumstances!

Now to adress the only real point made by Adam:

Over the course of the last two expansions there have been two major changes that have broken this system of MMO gameplay.

The first was the introduction of the cross-realm LFG system, and the dramatic effect that had on realm communities. The second has been the recent and ongoing homogenisation of the DPS classes in particular, to the extent that one is as good as another in any situation. Both of these changes have been made by Blizzard, not the players.

While I agree with both, nobody is forcing anybody to use the Dungeon Finder to run (Heroic) Dungeons. Any player can easily try to organize (steady) realm groups. I see people doing this everyday. As for the ongoing homogenisation of […] classes … this is a real problem and my main concern about the game right now. I would love to see genuine classes again.

Finally to quote Chris about your 2 posts trashing Tobold:

This post is disgusting trash and adds nothing to the conversation. If all you were going to do is give us a wall of ad hominem, you should’ve kept it to yourself.

I agree with you, When I play an Alt from lower levels I can never find a decent player to befriend, There is no sense of fellowship or a common struggle WoW has become a solo game Unless you are instanced, I would not be suprised if in a few patches we would have NPC tanks and healers to fill the roles.

everything said above. the game as we knew it and loved it isnt anymore… nothing left. friendlist empty… raiding not interessting anymore… rated bgs are fun… but why should i pay for them and not play some fps with more friends then the one person on my friendlist?!
all i have to do now is getting my rated bg rating maxed out… wich should be done in 2 weeks. and then sell my account and get myself something nice… i dont even know if i want to play another mmorpg anymore. do yourself a fave and just quit before you are sucked in again.

I have to agree with you, LFD, much like the Internet in general, encourages bad behavior because it provides what is essentially anonymity and nearly-consequence-free activity.

Fixing it wouldn’t be terribly hard. There have been dozens of suggestions all over the ‘net recommending 99 kinds of rating systems, black lists, etc.

I think Blizzard’s intention was to provide a fast and easy way for people to run dungeons. Everything else is an unintended consequence. Hopefully, they are looking into (and recent posts indicate they may be).

To be honest, I feel like not including the Looking For Guild utility in Cataclysm was a bad move on Blizzard’s part. The ability to easily create communities in which your behavior mattered would have been, at least, a tiny foil to the Lord of the Flies behavior in LFD.

Solid post, with which I agree. I think the LFG tool itself, at least as far as heroics, has peaked and is on the decline – the only successful heroics I’ve been a part of in Cata were done in-guild; the few attempts I’ve tried with LFG were miserable failures, and from reading it appears, at least anecdotally, that many (most?) feel the same way. I won’t soon try that tool again.

While I don’t think most DPS actively bitch about long queue times – we reasonable types understand we’re the most populous spec – there are some noisy ones out there. Tobold reacting to the “squeaky wheels” by opining that they should try playing healers or tanks is simply ideology-driven, and he is entitled to his own opinions. But I believe ultimately this will be sorted out by market forces, as it should – DPS play as DPS because that’s what they like. If they don’t want to heal or tank, they will either find other things to do, or stop playing altogether. Blizzard will eventually react to that behavior – by either modifying the game in such a way that it will REALLY be mucked up and mark the beginning of the end (if that hasn’t already come to pass), or perhaps devising an actual player-driven, reasonable enhancement to the process. But I don’t profess to having a silver bullet that will solve all those ills.

Part of the big problem is also that every class is being homogenized and their skill lists are being populated with abilities from other classes. We really didn’t need to go down this direction. Be honest, how many people really care that you’re a rogue?

There are no more chests in the world or in dungeons since the end of TBC. In fact, I think they went back and erased them all. Chests only drop off mobs now and every rogue gets the lockpicking skill for free as they level. So nobody needs you in particular.

Rogues previously were one of the classes with the only reliable crowd control mechanic. Mage was the other one. Warlock was okay if your tank had the ability to deal with incoming groups of pulled mobs, but then you didn’t really need crowd control if you could deal with it. Priests were good for Karazhan. Now everyone and their mother has some form of reliable cc. Hell, classes that never had any were suddenly thrown to the top of the pack (hex, bind elemental).

Tanks all became copy pasted versions of each other with different colors and “themed” names to their skills.

But think about it. Isn’t this what players wanted?

You have to assume that Blizzard are responding to their market analysis, surveys and feedback. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be a successful corporation.

Sorry if I sound a bit elitist, maybe I am. I’m an old school gamer who’s pissed off that NOTHING on the MMO market is as challenging or fun as the old Rogue and Nethacks or MUDs were. Sure, we’ve advanced light years in technology but somehow we still can’t figure out how to balance 10 classes vs another 10? WoW doesn’t even have the excuse of a “multiclassing” system. The classes should just be pure, with a vision and with unique abilities.

The short of the long is that we players asked for this. Even if you specifically didn’t, we as a community did. Because majority wins and Blizzard will go with what makes them the most money.

We have only ourselves to blame for the LFG system. We asked for it when those annoying pests who made our server a miserable experience by being horrible rogues and ninja huntards DIDN’T

Part of the big problem is also that every class is being homogenized and their skill lists are being populated with abilities from other classes. We really didn’t need to go down this direction. Be honest, how many people really care that you’re a rogue?

There are no more chests in the world or in dungeons since the end of TBC. In fact, I think they went back and erased them all. Chests only drop off mobs now and every rogue gets the lockpicking skill for free as they level. So nobody needs you in particular.

Rogues previously were one of the classes with the only reliable crowd control mechanic. Mage was the other one. Warlock was okay if your tank had the ability to deal with incoming groups of pulled mobs, but then you didn’t really need crowd control if you could deal with it. Priests were good for Karazhan. Now everyone and their mother has some form of reliable cc. Hell, classes that never had any were suddenly thrown to the top of the pack (hex, bind elemental).

Tanks all became copy pasted versions of each other with different colors and “themed” names to their skills.

But think about it. Isn’t this what players wanted?

You have to assume that Blizzard are responding to their market analysis, surveys and feedback. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be a successful corporation.

Sorry if I sound a bit elitist, maybe I am. I’m an old school gamer who’s pissed off that NOTHING on the MMO market is as challenging or fun as the old Rogue and Nethacks or MUDs were. Sure, we’ve advanced light years in technology but somehow we still can’t figure out how to balance 10 classes vs another 10? WoW doesn’t even have the excuse of a “multiclassing” system. The classes should just be pure, with a vision and with unique abilities.

The short of the long is that we players asked for this. Even if you specifically didn’t, we as a community did. Because majority wins and Blizzard will go with what makes them the most money.

We have only ourselves to blame for the LFG system. We asked for it when those annoying pests who made our server a miserable experience by being horrible rogues and ninja huntards DIDN’T quit the game, but went and complained about how they can’t get into any dungeons.

Frankly, I’ll enjoy WoW for a while because it’s the only thing I can play at the moment without buying a new computer, but I’m still waiting for that “old school” WoW killer which I’ll switch to in a heartbeat.

I think you might be waiting a long time. Game publishers are a pretty risk-averse lot, and they see how Wow has grown as it abandoned the old-school model for the ‘no retard left behind’ model. They want a piece of the 12 million subscribers (as opposed to, say, Eve’s 400K), and thus they’re far more likely to make Wow clones than Wow killers.

If I were to friend someone from anouther realm and they friend me, it would be nice if the LFG tool would make efforts to group us together in future. I’m not sure if this would be wide open to abuse (remember both people have to have added each other) but you could build up a nice list of trusted people. This may minimise the risk of running with complete tools and somewhat resembles the situation described at the start of your post.

One of you best posts Adam. I think you could take it even further with the whole “real ID” I have encountered more who are taking thise even further to limit themselves to not just those already known via guild but “do I know them in real life?”

It is getting more difficult to add individuals to those “friends” lists, even if you try.

While I think that the “bring the player, not the class” idea has partially noble roots, it seems that there are two net effects of class homogenization and the way the game was played in Wrath:

1) as individual classes become less unique, those who play them well become less appreciated for their skill (in this case, if you’re a damage class/spec, your identity, through no fault of your own other than personal preference, is “DPS” – the uncouth masses, the common rabble – rather than “skilled rogue, who plays all aspects of his class well”); and

2) as that uniqueness is stripped away, there are inevitably players who will lose the feeling that they are playing a unique, special class as well. That may vary from one player to another, but I think it’s palpable, based on what I’m reading lately (and feeling myself).

You’ve written a lot about point number one, and I agree with it. I think, though, that on a personal level, the second point is one of the big reasons that I ultimately got frustrated and quit the game. It’s a disheartening feeling. It’s not the only reason, of course, but it’s part of it.

There are many reasons that the game is eliciting mixed feelings from players right now, just six weeks after its release. We can argue about them, but ultimately, we play the game in whichever way is “successful.” And when the “Wrath” playstyle became the means to success for a large number of players, de-emphasizing well-rounded class knowledge etc., it was only natural (unfortunately) that stereotyping would ensue – it was something that we could afford to do, because 9/10 of what mattered was that you did as much DPS as possible, and 1/10 was that you didn’t get aggro or stand in the fire.

So now, we’re here, discussing how that has affected our desire to play and ability enjoy the game. And I have to agree with you, again – some of that is definitely on the designers.

I understand that LFD is not a perfect system. The problems with it you describe above are valid.

I would like to play devil’s advocate here for a moment though…

Homoginization of the DPS classes has occured. But I still believe that those DPS who do their jobs well are appreciated. As a healer if I group from a person on my server who I see effectively crowd controlling, moving out of shit, interrupting they will find a place on my friends list. Just because everyone has these new abilities doesn’t mean they know how to effectively use them. I still believe that those DPS that are good at what they do will receive more invites and be more successful in progression.

Also, there are definitely situations still in the current content where specific class skills are important. The last boss in Grim Batol was a wipe fest with a Balance Druid, Shadow priest and DK. When the BD dropped group our prayers were answered when we got a rogue. Next attempted was a huge success.

OK, I know this is getting long, but secondly I wanna comment on this: “..As tanks in particular are easy to run through the LFG system, tanks can gear up quickly in comparison to other roles..” I agree that this can mean that we will see less tanks utilizing LFD and thus longer queue times. But don’t you want your tank to be in the best gear possible? Your healer next? Yes, I like a nicely geared DPS in my group as much as the next person, but if I had to choose who I want to be in the best gear? It’s gonna be that guy taking all the hits. Couldn’t this also be incentive for more people to try/learn to tank? Instaqueues is a great incentive.

DPS who do their job well are appreciated, I agree. But that DPS who you liked so much will never be seen again. And they won’t be able to find you either.

Of course I want tanks in the best gear, I want everyone in the best gear. But my point was that the fully geared tank now has no insentive whatsoever to run heroics, leaving the rest of us in a long queue bind. And seeing that Blizzard has designed this expansion around heroics and not raids, that’s a problem.

Couldn’t disagree more. Blizzard set the table, but the players decided how to eat. Is this Vanilla WoW? Not even a little bit. What it is though, is WoW 2.0.

“I don’t meet anyone while leveling up!” Well no kidding. First, a large majority of players are probably still doing 80-85 content on their stable of 80 alts. While the phasing aspect of 80-85 leveling does keep things on rails (I don’t like that aspect as much), it at least gives you a direction to travel.

Don’t like the LFD? Don’t bloody use it. The only thing preventing you from establishing a friends list is you. It’s a tool to help, not do it for you.

It would be nice if we could get a preference of who we grouped with (i.e. friends from another server), but black lists already exist – it’s called the ignore list. All we need is the preferred list. I’d like to be able to vote down dungeons like I can do with maps in SC2 – but sometimes it’s 5 days of SFK as my random.

I like having a larger pool (x-realm) to pull from for BGs and LFD. Heck, I wish it was US/EU battle.net wide like SC2. I certainly don’t want to go back to the limited pool or 4 hour waits for WSG.

I think that players need to adjust to what the game is, not expect Blizzard to ‘fix it’.

I couldn’t disagree more with the conclusions your arrive at by the end of the post. I’m completely with your regarding the lowered likelihood of finding long term in game friends compared to how things used to be, but I don’t see that as near as detrimental as you seem to. I almost always tank or heal and I’ve found tons of players in the LFG that I’ve enjoyed playing with. I’d compare this to showing up to basketball courts that you’re not familiar with, playing pickup games with guys for awhile, and then leaving – you don’t have to make permanent friends to have a good time and play the game. At the end of the game, you say “good game all” and take off. No biggie and no commitment required for enjoyment.

Ultimately, the entire thing comes off as an attempt to demonize Blizzard for the shortage of tanks and healers. Ultimately, I still think it all comes back to a lack of skill or willingness to take responsibility by the player base. Neither tanking or healing is particularly difficult, but they’re well beyond the reach of the idiot that pulls 5K DPS and they’re often beyond the responsibility level of what even competent DPSers would like in runs.

The notion that finding runs was quick back in BC seems to be based on a rose colored glasses view of history that I don’t share at all. I mained a Warlock back then (and did again for a bit in Wrath), and finding trade group LFG pugs if my friends weren’t on could be a nightmare. It took a long time and they were frequently no more competent than the new LFG pugs – the difference is that I was stuck with them because replacing was too difficult to be worth it.

In sum, I think the “deep-rooted” problem you speak of is not something created by Blizzard, but rather the reality that most people are just idiots.

The best attempt yet at improving the game is Gevlon’s guild if you ask me. It’s a growing pool of mostly decent players, and bad behaviour has severe consequences. I actually have people on my friends list again since I joined The PuG.

And don’t expect the way classes are handled is going to change. The DPS queue’s aren’t making people reroll, it’s making them question the viability of the holy trinity.

I have to say I would not support a DSP player “tanking” to support his moral obligation.. I mean you thing pugs are horrible now? Tanks and Healers are special (and good DPS are too) .. I sure as hell would not want some DPS specced DK to be like “Oh yeah I will tank how hard can it be”.

Certainly LFD/LFG is an idea that,with hindsight,it would have been better to have consigned to the “nah, maybe not” pile. Its influence on the game has been more profound than I’m sure they ever imagined.

There has always been more tanks and healers it’s just the way it is. What’s happening at the moment is that it’s harder and so less tanks and healers are showing up in LFD, preferring to run with their guilds perhaps. This is attributable to the introduction of LFD towards the end of Wotlk when tanks and healers were just spamming a few buttons and the rest of it was a dps face roll. Now there is more effort and team work required which is a mind shift away from where it used to be.

It’s undoubtedly Blizzards design but I can’t help sympathising with them. We the player base complained that it was too elitist and everyone deserved the end game content for which we pay. Blizz responded and it all became a face roll of epics that equally didn’t satisfy us. Now back to more team work and effort but it’s still not right.

Backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, it’s like a skid that’s out of control.

“The second has been the recent and ongoing homogenisation of the DPS classes in particular, to the extent that one is as good as another in any situation.”
This stuck out to me. I guess we’re thinking in the same direction, as I found myself writing a bit about this for tomorrow.

This is one of the reasons I only stayed a month to look at Cataclysm, before unsubscribing again.

In Vanilla I was a healer (priest) main.

In BC I was tank (all three) and tree main (if someone can be said to have 4 mains).😄

As a healer, I would STICK TO GOOD TANKS LIKE GLUE. And by good, I meant people whom I enjoyed running with, not just skilled people, but nice ones.

As a tank, I would tend to pair up with one particular healer after finding them through random PUGs, and us finding we liked each other.

For me, WoW was always very much tank-determined, in that when I played as a tank, I’d tend to set up the group, packing it with people I knew to be good folk from assorted PUGS, before doing ‘advertisements’ on the LFG channel – this was pre-LFD.

One of the things I found was that (while some tanks I know shout me down about this, I’ll stick to my battery guns) – most PUG healers are competent, or even good.

Most PUG DPS are not the same. But this isn’t DPS bashing – honest. It just made me value good DPS *that much more*. Good lord, that warlock can chain seduce AND throw out the hurt? And pingpong fear too? I compliment them in party chat, and I whisper them after the run that they’re great – and I’d love to run with them again (assuming, of course, they weren’t turdies in terms of personality). I built up a little black book of sexy DPS. And I think that was one of the things I really, really missed, when returning to Cata for a month, on a fresh account.

The LFD tool, by comparison, was like a series of one night stands, where either it was bad because the sex was bad, or it was bad because the sex was incredible – but we’d never see each other again.

I do remember the days when you’d have to go to a capital city to even form/get a group, and I certainly didn’t miss that – but I did very much miss the LFG *channel*.

I missed being able to do ads like this – Squishy tank seeks suicidal healer for heroics! I guarantee that if you come with me, I will focus on one mob, and one mob only, obliviously charging ahead while everything else eats you, and also occasionally be unable to hold aggro on my target. Cmon! You know you wanna come with us! *tughealers*

…and the best part is, ads like that weren’t just fun to write. They often got me bored, GOOD healers, who signed up just on account of how crazed I sounded.

In retrospect, I think the LFG *channel* was one of the best stages of PUG-finding in WoW.

[…] the past year or so in the WoW blogoverse and tweetosphere. In the wake of Wrath and the LFG tool, much digital ink has been spilled in the documentation of the change in the WoW community. Most analysts […]

[…] In epic Bearwall style, BBB discusses the Unholy Trinity. I also enjoyed We Fly Spitfires’ take on the same issue: adding a 6th party member! And for a slightly different perspective, you can always check out Adam at the Noisy Rogue who explores why there’s a healer / tank “shortage.” […]